Season 1, Episode 11
Remedial Battle Magic
Quentin, Alice, Penny, Eliot and Margo use probability magic to determine their best chance to kill the Beast and survive; the only option that doesn't end with all of them dead is for them to travel to Fillory to kill the Beast. Because of time constraints, they prepare by learning the dangerous battle magic used by hedge witches. The Beast is driving Penny and other Travelers insane, leading some of them to kill themselves, including Penny's mentor Stanley. Penny uses drugs to try blocking out the Beast's voice, leading to an overdose. Professor Pearl Sunderland helps him shut the voices out. Mastering the battle spells leaves Quentin, Eliot, and Margo emotionally high and disoriented. Quentin has sex with Margo and Eliot, and when he wakes up he find Alice at the foot of the bed. Kady and Julia search for clues to help them summon a god, and someone visits Julia in her dreams.
Tropes Present In This Episode
- Ate His Gun: Stanley kills himself with a shotgun this way.
- Bedmate Reveal: Quentin waking up naked in bed with Margo and Eliot at the end of the episode.
- Emotion Suppression: Battle magic needs a cold and rational mindset to be used properly; without that, it only comes in fits and starts. The correct way to do this is with meditation and practice, but the hedge witches have a trick where they put all their emotions in a bottle, which puts them in the perfect frame of mind to cast easily. However, when they reclaim their emotions, they get them all at once, and it hits them like the worst drug crash ever.
